Louis P. Martini

As the son of winemaking pioneer Louis M. Martini, Louis P. grew up as a quiet, studious young man with a burning desire to know how things work.  He was an innovator who used science to advance his art.  His father made him winemaker in the family winery in 1954.

Highly educated, with expertise in many fields, Louis P. was a fearless experimenter. Certain that he could prevent frost by stirring up cold air that settled on his vines, he got an old airplane propeller and mounted it with a motor on a tower in the vineyard. The first time he fired it up, the propeller pulled the tower up and took off across the field. Undaunted, Louis P. went on to perfect the system of using fans for frost protection, now commonplace in the wine industry.

His own son, current winemaker Michael Martini, says, “Besides being innovative in the winery, my dad was innovative with vineyards. He could really size up good vineyard land. He was a pioneer in vineyard design. He really knew how to find good dirt.”

At the end of Prohibition in 1933, Louis M. Martini began building a new winery in St. Helena, a few miles north of the town of Napa.  It is here that the Martini family winemaking continues today.